Knucks: Finally finished (and given away)

Dear Shayne,

A long, long time ago, I was working on a pair of "Knucks." Do you remember those? While I finished the knitting back in Nov 2006 (told you it was a long time ago), I dragged my feet for awhile on embroidering "Go Browns" on them. I finally did that about 6 months ago, but I wasn't thrilled with the embroidery, so I put them away and did not report on them here.

I got them out a few weeks ago and I was forced to be honest with myself about something else... they're too snug for me. I've been in denial about it, but they're just a little too tight. Enough to not be comfortable. Sigh. Fortunately, my mother is also a Browns fan and her hands are smaller than mine!

Since she was in town last week, I decided to show them to her and see what she thought of the embroidery that I was also not happy with. If she liked it, I would give 'em to her. If she didn't... well, I would try again, although my hopes were not high (I think I used too bulky of a yarn for the fingers to make good letters... also, the brown letters sort of fade into brown and orange knitting. Maybe white would be better?)

As soon as I showed them to her, she went nuts over them, so I gave 'em to her. They look really cute on her and now I don't have to see my embroidery flaws all the time. I have plenty of brown and orange yarn, so I'll just make myself another pair!

Just for posterity (and so you can see my not-so-great work), here is how the embroidery turned out:


Now I've got until September to make myself a pair. Go, Browns!

love,
kelly

Yeehaw!

Dear Shayne,

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I've been crocheting a cowgirl hat (Yeehaw Lady from Debbie Stoller's The Happy Hooker). It's finished! It's a little bit wonky and does not look great on the glass head, but my head is bigger than the glass head, so it looks all right on me (I think).


Thank goodness I had my friend Jocelyn's help with this (Hi, Jocelyn!) because the pattern ended up being waaaaay too big (and I have a big head!) She forged ahead and ripped back when she saw what was coming, thereby saving me the agony of ripping back (too much) myself.


I can't say that I would trade in my knitting needles for a crochet hook, but it is certainly faster than knitting and you can make nice, structured things very quickly with crochet.

I also realized that I've been making dishcloths wrong all of these years. When I said that earlier to Jocelyn, she said, "Why? How have you been making them?" I said, "Knitting."

Yeah. It usually takes me 4 hours to knit a dishcloth. I could probably whip one out in about an hour with crochet. It's crocheted dishcloths from now on, baby. Yeehaw!

love,
kelly

Other items from the swap

Dear Shayne,

As I mentioned before, we had a "craft supply swap" at work last week and I took a couple of things home. I've already shown you the tatting, but here are the other two items.

Enough fabric to make a long skirt:


Sigh. I have a terrible time getting motivated to make clothes, but I couldn't resist this one. I don't know what it is exactly, but it feels like rayon or a rayon blend. Plus, it's preeeettty.

Also, I got some scraps of topographic paper:


Good for collages and whatnot, right? I like that this one on top says "Hay."

Even though I really shouldn't have brought anything home, it's still less stuff than I took to the swap, so yay!

love,
kelly

Sam's tote bag

Dear Kelly,

Sam loves the tote bag you made him. He's been using it to carry his Nintendo DS around...it's the perfect size!

Thanks again for making it for him.

Love,
Shayne

Cake-y goodness

Dear Kelly,

My husband has one major flaw: he doesn't like chocolate. I recently heard him complaining to my mom over blueberry muffins she had just made that I only ever bake chocolate things. So I told him I'd make a strawberry cake. (Strawberry cake batter to me is as gross as chocolate is to him, so this was *very* nice of me.)
















I made a single layer round as well as twelve cupcakes. I couldn't find strawberry icing at my grocery store, so I frosted it all with vanilla icing and topped it all off with fresh strawberries.
















I was very excited to finally see my Cup-a-cake containers in action.
















Love,
Shayne

Crafting tastiness

Dear Shayne,

This is what Bill and I "crafted" together last week:


Believe it or not, it's not completely terrible for us, but it tasted delicious! We used a whole wheat Boboli crust (shockingly, it did not taste like cardboard), low-sodium marinara sauce, part-skim cheese, and turkey sausage. Considering pizza usually means greasy delivery for us (mmm... grease), this is a step in the right direction.

Oh, yeah -- and Bill grilled it, which definitely adds to the awesome tastiness of it. (Food goes into the backyard and dinner comes back in! It's magic!)

I'm sure it would be even better for us if I could stand to put some veggies on there, but ugh. Veggies on pizza = no good (to me). Eating healthy is a long and winding road. But if there are occasional pizzas along the way, I'll keep trying.

love,
kelly

Crafts from the past

Dear Shayne,

As I mentioned in this post, I participated in a craft supply swap this week. There were half a dozen people and I think it went pretty well. Almost everyone was looking to get rid of stuff (rather than acquire more), so there was a lot left over for donation. But that's okay by me -- it motivated me to get 2 large bags (trash bag sized!) of stuff out of my craft closet. Yay! Success!

Plus, I did not bring too much stuff home with me. Not too much. Would you like to see what I did bring home? Of course you would!

One person had a little ziplock bag containing various abandoned supplies from the past: crochet thread, tiny knitting needles, tatting shuttles, and a hand-written knitting pattern. None of that was particularly interesting to me, but there was also some lovely handmade tatting in there. It's so beautiful, I just had to take it:


Tatting is not something I'd ever do myself (these pieces must have taken hours and hours to make), but I can appreciate the loveliness. Each of those long pieces is at least 12 inches long. The top one is closer to 18 inches.

Here are some closer photos of some of the items:


This medallion is so impressive:


And here are some pretty little pink daisies:


Now I have to decide what to do with them -- I think they'll be great for collage. Oooh! Perhaps using photos from the collage sheets that you sent me for Christmas!

I also got some scraps of topographic maps, fabric to make a skirt, and a couple of picture frames. I'll show you the other stuff later.

Final "stuff" tally: 2 full trash bags out, 1 half-full grocery bag in. Progress!

love,
kelly

Peeps flambé!

Dear Shayne,

Without even knowing that I had posted about Peeps yesterday, Bill brought me home a surprise gift of... Peeps! Since I had just posted a link to the "recipe" for Peeps Flambé, I thought we would give it a go.


We have a nifty little hand-held blow torch. I guess you could use it for crème brulée, but we just use it for, um, Peeps brulée. Hee hee.

The first one caught on fire:


Which made for a rather charred Peep:


It was tasty, of course, but I thought I'd try another less blackened version.

Here's the start of it:


I continued around the Peep in that fashion until it was crispy on the outside and melty on the inside. Mmmmmm.

love,
kelly

Custom Wall Art

Dear Kelly,

Yesterday I was having lunch with my friend Jenny (not to be confused with your friend Jenny) and she mentioned that she needed some art to hang on a freshly painted wall. She said she wanted a canvas with a geometric design and thought that maybe she could do it yourself. A trip to Michaels and $42 later, we went to her house and started painting. Even though we planned to do squares, we used this great stencil - it had three layers to make overlapping squares. I think we spent about three hours painting and it turned out great!

















Love,
Shayne

I need to make this!

Dear Shayne,

I know that you are a fellow Craft: blog reader, so you've already seen this today, but I have to bring it up anyway -- I must make this bag:


Or something using Peeps as stamps!

I actually own the book that this pattern is from, if you can believe it. If you don't have a copy and you need one, Craft is giving one away right now right here (contest expires tomorrow at 10am so hurry!)

The reason I need to make this bag? Oh, cause I love Peeps. Yeah. I'm a grown woman and I love sugar dipped in sugar. That's right. And if you think that's gross, you shouldn't read any further.

I used to think that the best way to eat them was when they get a little stale and the outside gets crispy. Then one time I left an opened package in my car (What? I'm gross, okay?) and when I came back, they were stale-crispy on the outside and warm and gooey on the inside! I have since duplicated this magical phenomenon in the microwave and last year, we took it to an extreme: Peeps Flambe! (You can find the "recipe" here.)

I took photos when we did it, but they came out horribly. Perhaps I need to try again with my new camera. Sounds like a good excuse to fire me up some Peep-a-licous goodness, doesn't it?

love,
kelly

PS -- That photo is from the Craft: blog, which is a wondrous place where we can all go to find an endless source of crafty inspiration.

Cute l'il embroidery pattern

Dear Shayne,

I've been quiet for a few days because I've been mining the depths of my craft closet -- we're having a "Craft Supply Swap" after work tomorrow where several of my crafty co-workers are going to bring all of those supplies they have not been using and pass them on to other crafty folks. In the interest of de-cluttering, my goal is to not return home with more than I bring to the swap. Wish me luck!

Meanwhile, I thought I would share with you a cute little future project that I most certainly will not be getting rid of at the swap. This sweet embroidery pattern I bought from Wee Wonderfuls:


The pattern came with what you see here: cute little postcard, iron-on transfer pattern, and a little note with some embroidery advice.

Although I have never been one to hand quilt (that's what machines are for, right?), I find these three girls to be oh-so-sweet. Now I need to dig out my embroidery floss and get started!

love,
kelly

Sam's tote bag: Done!

Dear Shayne,

Yay! Another item crossed off of my "To Do" list: Sam's tote bag!


You requested the dimensions be "12 x 12 x flat." I got the "flat" part, but it is slightly smaller than 12x12. I used a different seam allowance than I originally cut for. Ooops. That's the problem with cutting one night and sewing the next -- it's enough time for me to forget the original plan.

Well, as long as he's not trying to carry any record albums, he should be okay. It's going in the mail tomorrow, so you should have it Monday or Tuesday. Yay!

love,
kelly

True confessions of a stalled out WiP

Dear Shayne,

You know the pillow I posted yesterday? True confession time: that pillow was made from two hearts that are supposed to make up an entire Valentine-y quilt. All of the rest of the pieces are cut, but those are the only two hearts that were ever sewn together.

This is a "work in progress" that is clearly not progressing at all -- in fact, it's more of a "work in regress."

I took a photo of it awhile back to show as a "WiP," but I was too ashamed to post it. Perhaps posting it now will motivate me to finish it? Let's see:

(Pizza boxes make nice flat containers for quilt blocks in progress. Don't say I never gave ya any good tips!)

My parents were married 6 years ago, so this project is probably going on 7. Wow. I took this class with Jenny and I can't believe it's been that long. (Jenny, do you still have the pieces for yours?) If anyone else is interested, you can still buy the pattern here.

Huh. I just realized that I was talking to my friend Jan (Hi, Jan!) yesterday about whether or not we would post a project that we had stalled out on for over 2 years. I guess we now know my answer: Yup!

love,
kelly

A pillow for my parents

Dear Shayne,

6 years and 2 days ago, my mom married the love of her life. Awww. I had forgotten about this pillow that I made them for their wedding, but my mom just sent me this photo:

I left that on their bed the day of their wedding, so it was there when they came home that evening. (Awww, again.) They get it out every year for Valentine's Day... perhaps they leave it out for their anniversary. I hope so!

I figured you'd like this one -- it's definitely in the Shayne Palette.

love,
kelly

Sam's tote bag

Dear Shayne,

I have the fabric and the strapping that you sent me to make a little tote bag for Sam:

My questions for you:
- What are the desired final dimensions? (HxDxW)
- How long do you want the straps?

I hope to whip this out sometime in the next few days. My To Do list is ever growing and feels like it's never shrinking! Sigh.

love,
kelly

Squishy pink hat

Dear Shayne,

Although I don't wear hats, they're fun to make, so I'm glad that my loved ones wear them. I made a couple of hats for Jenny last fall, but they were shorter "skull cap" style ones and she lives in Chicago. For winter, she needs some ear coverage!

She asked for a pink hat (knew you'd love that) and I love this squishy malabrigo (100% fluffy merino wool deliciousness) so I used it to make this:


It was really fun to make. I doubled the yarn, which made it even fluffier and more lovely to us, and the pattern was fun and turned out cute. It's called An Unoriginal Hat (read that post to find out why) by the Yarn Harlot (hilarious blog to read, even if you don't knit -- she's great!) The only modification I made to the pattern was to knit 3 set-up rows, which made it a bit longer (more ear warming!) and I used almost the entire skein of yarn. Mmmmalabrigo!

Just for kicks, here's a shot of the front:


Mmmmalabrigo!

love,
kelly

Our 200th post!

Dear Internet,

We are proud to announce that this is our 200th post. This has been loads of crafty fun so far and we're looking forward to the next 200!

love,
Shayne and Kelly

WiP: Baby sweater

Dear Shayne,

I've done plenty of knitting, but I've never made a sweater. I find the idea of such a large project daunting. However, there are some babies coming into our lives this year (No -- not me! Don't go starting any rumors!) and I thought I might try my hand at a baby sweater:


Doesn't really look like much yet, does it? Eventually it should look like that photo you see on the left. Let's not hold our breath.

I started it last week, but then I got waylaid by the cowgirl hat (still workin' on that) and another project that I can't post yet because it's a gift and has not yet been delivered.

So I'll go back to the baby sweater this weekend. Even though it only uses one skein of yarn, I'm still somewhat daunted. The pattern is from a book called One Skein, which, lemme tell you -- was written for me. Short projects = yay! And the yarn, although it doesn't look that great in this photo, is dreamy to work with -- lovely organic cotton from Blue Sky Alpacas. It's really soft and even Shayne-safe, although those colors are not really your bag. You might find something in their Dyed Cotton line, though -- just as soft as the organic, but with lovely, lovely color!

Wow. I was going to compare this yarn to knitting with a puffy cloud, but then I decided it was too corny (cause it is) but then I went on over the Blue Sky site and they say, "Wrap yourself in a cloud of comfort." If I'm thinkin' it and they're thinkin' it, you know it must be true!

love,
kelly

Sweet little project from Photojojo

Dear Shayne,

Do you subscribe to Photojojo? If you don't, you should. They have many cool photo related projects (either for taking cool photos or for doing cool stuff with your photos). While you're waiting for your subscription to begin, you can browse the great projects they've already had here.

Today's project really struck my fancy. Check it out:

I just think that is so sweet!

Of course, it may also be fueled by my desire for a new set of colored pencils... as I went to grab mine last week, I realized they are from 1988 and they're not looking so hot. I think 20 years is a long service life for colored pencils -- it's time to get new ones. What kind do you use? Any recommendations?

love,
kelly

PS - Directions for this project can be found here. Also, I took that photo from the Photojojo site -- not surprisingly, they have great photos. Heh.

Monkey Zone

Dear Kelly,

I just ordered these monkey wall graphics in brown for Sam's room from One Up Designs:





















Almost every time Sam has a new obsession, I come up with some brilliant plan to decorate his room. When he was into super heroes, I was going to paint a cartoon-styled city scape all around his room and have different super heroes on top of buildings, flying, saving the day etc. When he couldn't get enough of Star Wars, I planned on making his room look like the inside of a space ship. Now it's all monkeys, all the time. On our last trip to Joanns, he saw all those huge papier mache letters and wanted to spell out 'poop' and 'pee' with them. After telling him absolutely not to that, I said that we could do his name. And then he suggested 'Monkey Zone'. Which is going to cost a wee bit more than 'Sam'. I'll have to keep an eye out for the letters to go on sale.

Love,
Shayne

P.S. Picture is from One Up Designs Etsy shop.

Skinny scarf

Dear Shayne,

I've had the yarn and pattern for this scarf for quite some time, but I only recently got around to making it. I'm very pleased with it -- it's knit lengthwise and it ended up looking almost woven, which I like!


I got the pattern from the book Knit Scarves, but it's also available online from Knitty Gritty right here. The pattern calls for fringe. I'm not usually a big fan of fringe, but I think this scarf probably does require it (those ends don't look so hot), so I've still got that to do.

I made it using Tahki Cotton Classic, although the pattern calls for wool. It looks a little wonky in this picture, but is actually quite smooth and even in real life.

Now, to fringe!

love,
kelly